› added 4 years ago

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TIL that Ontario Canada has a combined Paternal and Maternal leave of 63 weeks in addition to 17 weeks pregnancy leave for the mother.

Read more ontario.ca

via reddit.com

ek65 TIL that during the 1979 Grand Mosque Seizure of Mecca by Islamic Insurgent, a french special commando briefly converted to Islam in order to respect the rules forbidding non-muslims to enter the “holy city” and then intervene.
KaMG TIL on April 5, 1943 the Destroyer USS O'Bannon encountered a Japanese submarine. Too close to fire their guns, the crew threw potatoes at the Japanses sailors, who thought they were grenades, distracting them long enough to get distance from the sub, fire their guns, and eventually sink it.
kOjvW TIL the famous "Florence Y'all" water tower in Florence, KY, originally read "Florence Mall." However, since the Florence Mall hadn't been built yet, the Highway Bureau declared the advertisement unlawful. Instead of repainting the entire tower, they simply repainted one letter on the cheap
JYd4j TIL of Aleksa Zdravkovic, a Serbian soldier who carried the same loaf of bread baked by his mother for 8 years through the Balkan Wars and WWI as a good luck charm until he returned home to Pirot. It remains preserved in a museum to this day.
RQa6 TIL that the Netherlands used to flood certain areas in times of war to create a military defensive line. The water was too shallow for boats, but deep enough to hide traps and ditches under.